Every year we see some graduates of the bargain basement achieve prominence on the track, winning stakes and pattern races and sometimes even scoring at the highest level.
There have already been several emerge in 2018 that were cheaply bought as yearlings, including recent pattern scorers Who's Steph (€40,000), Psychedelic Funk (£30,000), Forest Ranger (26,000gns), Sands Of Mali (€20,000), Pharrell (€15,000) and Butzje (€5,500). Last year's included a filly who was led out unsold in Doncaster at just £14,000. She had been an €8,000 Arqana December foal and, given her pedigree, the difficulty she had in attracting much attention was both understandable yet still disappointing. Different League represents the large first crop of French juvenile star Dabirsim (by Hat Trick), she won her first two starts at minor venues before springing a surprise with a neck defeat of Alpha Centauri in the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, then finished third to Unfortunately in the Group 1 Prix Morny before chasing home Clemmie in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. The Matthieu Palussiere-trained bay then went to the Tattersalls December Mares Sale where she changed hands for 1,500,000gns. Now a member of the all-conquering Aidan O'Brien team, she holds entries in the Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas), Group 1 Qipco Irish 1000 Guineas and Group 3 Coolmore Mastercraftsman Irish EBF Athasi Stakes, but is due to make her seasonal reappearance in the Listed Committed Stakes over five and a half furlongs at Navan on Sunday.
Dabirsim's first crop also includes recent Group 3 Prix Imprudence winner Coeur De Beaute. He began his stallion career at Gestüt Karlshof in Germany, moved to Haras de Grandcamp in France after two years, has received large books of mares, and created such a favourable impression with his first juveniles that his fee has more than tripled, now standing at €30,000.
His star daughter is the third winner from three runners out of Danseuse Corse (by Danehill Dancer), who won several times at around 10 furlongs, which would raise hope that she might stay a mile, although her chosen first target of the year suggests that the pace she has been showing at home puts that in doubt. Her grandam Corse (by Indian Ridge), who won once, came up with just two winners from eight foals – and is the grandam of two blacktype-placed Brazilian winners – and the third dam is unraced Par Un Nez (by Cyrano de Bergerac), who was out of Listed Cambridgeshire third Miss Bali Beach (by Nonoalco). Before Different League, the only stakes winner in the first four generations of the family was Carrowkeel (by Waajib) – one of four winners among seven foals out of Par Un Nez – and that Group 1 Middle Park Stakes runner-up took the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes at York in 1997. That a fifth generation can appear on a catalogue page is a sign of how light the distaff side of a pedigree is, and its details took up a large part of her page in the December Sale catalogue. There is plenty of blacktype there – her fourth dam is a half-sister to Italian listed scorer Miss Waterloo (by Brigadier Gerard) and to Listed Britannia Handicap winner and Group 3 Earl of Sefton Stakes runner-up Bali Dancer (by Habitat), and the first of that pair is the dam of Grade 1-winning South African sprinter Cataloochee (by Al Mufti). Their siblings also include Miss Kuta Beach (by Bold Lad IRE) and that triple winner's descendants include Group 3 Prix de Meautry scorer Andreyev (by Presidium), Group 2-placed juvenile listed sprint winner Hoyam (by Royal Applause), and the Group 3 Ormonde Stakes winners Asian Heights (by Hernando) and St Expedit (by Sadler's Wells). Different League holds both official and Timeform ratings of 110 so needs to show improvement if she is to be up to doing well in all-aged Group 1 company, over any distance. Her pedigree suggests that she could be a sprinter who might stay a mile, and it will be interesting to find out how good she really is.
Dabirsim (by Hat Trick) lit up the two-year-old scene in France in 2011, going unbeaten in five starts that included both the Group 1 Prix Morny and Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. He had kicked off that campaign with a 10-length debut score over six furlongs at La Teste De Buch in early June and his end of season Timeform rating was 120p.
The grandson of Group 1 Oaks d'Italia heroine Bright Generation (by Rainbow Quest) promised to be a classic colt and top miler at three, with the potential to stay the Prix du Jockey Club distance too, and that added to the disappointment of his truncated career. He was short-headed by Dragon Pulse in the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau over a mile at Longchamp in mid-April and was then beaten by only about half a length in a blanket finish to the Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas), passing the post in sixth place. Lucayan won the race. He began his stallion career at Gestut Karlshof in Germany but moved to Haras de Grandcamp, in France, after two years. He has received large books of mares, his fee was €9,000 in each of his first four seasons, and the impression he made with his first juveniles is reflected in the more than tripling of his fee for 2018. It's now €30,000. His double-digit tally of winners is headed by Different League, the Group 3 Albany Stakes winner who was runner-up in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, third in the Group 1 Prix Morny, and then sold for 1,500,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale to join the all-conquering Aidan O'Brien team in Ireland. He has also had three blacktype-placed runners and, at Deauville on Monday, his Mauricio Delcher Sanchez-trained daughter Coeur De Beaute won the Group 3 Prix Imprudence, beating Zonza by half a length on heavy ground. Last year she won the six-furlong Listed Prix Zeddaan by two lengths, she chased home Sound And Silence in the Group 3 Prix Eclipse over the same course and distance, and was only beaten by a neck when runner-up in a five-furlong listed contest on good ground at Deauville.
Coeur De Beaute was bred by Haras de Grandcamp Earl, she is a €30,000 graduate of the Osarus September Yearling Sale, and she is the third foal out of the once-raced Twilight Tear (by Rock Of Gibraltar). That mare is out of one-time winner Clara Bow (by Sadler's Wells) and comes from a famous family.
Clara Bow is a full-sister to the Group 1 stars Sequoyah and Listen, both of whom have done well at stud. Listen, the youngest of the trio, was the champion two-year-old filly in Ireland in 2007, she won the Group 1 Fillies' Mile at Ascot, was runner-up in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh, and is the dam of the Group 1-placed Japanese Group 2 scorer Touching Speech (by Deep Impact). Sequoyah won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes in 2000, she is the dam of dual Guineas star Henrythenavigator (by Kingmambo) and of his full-sister Queen Cleopatra, the dual classic-placed pattern winner whose stakes-winning grandson Cliffs Of Moher (by Galileo) chased home Wings Of Eagles in the Group 1 Investec Derby at Epsom last year. Clara Bow's sisters also include Lady Windermere (by Lake Coniston), the unraced dam of pattern-placed Irish listed sprint winner Absolutelyfabulous (by Mozart) and so the grandam of that one's most talented offspring, the full-siblings Magician (by Galileo), Apple Betty, and Outstanding. The latter won the Listed Oaks Trial at Naas and finished third in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes, Apple Betty was a listed race winner in France before going on to become a Grade 2-placed Grade 3 scorer in the USA, and Magician is the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas and Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf star who stands at Ashford Farm in Kentucky and is a freshman sire of 2018. Brigid (by Irish River), the third dam of Coeur De Beaute, won once in France as a three-year-old, she is out of the stakes-placed dual US winner Luv Luvin' (by Raise a Native), and so is a full-sister to Or Vision, the stakes-winning dam of Group 1 stars Dolphin Street (by Bluebird), Insight (by Sadler's Wells) and Saffron Walden (by Sadler's Wells). Their stakes-winning full-sister Litani River is the grandam of Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes scorer Beethoven (by Oratorio), and there are many other blacktype horses to be found within the various branches of these first four generations of the pedigree. Coeur De Beaute has not yet tried a mile but, on pedigree, there would not appear to be any reason why that trip would be beyond her. Whether or not she will be good enough to make the frame in a well-run edition of the Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas) remains to be seen, but there should be plenty of good prizes to be won with her from six furlongs to a mile, with a chance that she will also be effective at 10 furlongs. |
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